Saturday, April 17, 2010

In the left corner, ladies and gentlemen, a towering figure in the world of fruit, an apple variety of near-legendary proportion, sought-after, elusive, and prized.

And in the opposing corner...come again?The idea for this comparison came to me at first bite of the Chestnut Crabapple and eventually became irresistible. It's not as ridiculous as you might think! though Cox's is all I have said and more.

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Apples are bought by the likes of you and me (with, one hopes, our usual flawless taste). We might be lured by one of those sleek modern names like Zestar or Honeycrisp, crafted to suggest sweetness and a snazzy, jazzy zestfulness.

Apple trees, on the other hand, are bought by growers, and sometimes the marketing effort is aimed at them.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

The association's web page, launched in late 2008, describes 64 158 of the more than 200 varieties that grow here, including many heirlooms. It lists orchards, recipes, and its own set of links, and offers other information to the hungry and curious.

If you'd like to know where to buy some of these apples, the "find a farm" search will let you discover, for instance, that Esopus Spitzenberg is available from Champlain Orchards in Vermont. Unfortunately, right now searches on too many of the varieties listed produce empty results.

Alexis de Tocqueville visited America in 1831 and famously found a nation of civic groups. In keeping with that tradition, the association provides services for its member farms and the apple-eating public, including supermarket promotions, an annual meeting, a lending library, and a newsletter, the McIntosh News.